- New DoomScroll Website Now Live
- Offers an ‘endless’ selection of custom Doom maps to play in a browser
- It’s quite a journey through Doom history, and some of these maps were created by programmers who worked for big game studios.
Have you ever felt the need to take a nostalgic trip back to the shores of hell? Now it’s possible to dive in and capture a short burst of Doom right in your browser, without needing to install anything, and with immediate access to thousands of levels customized for the shooter.
PC Gamer reports that the DoomScroll website is now live, containing the classic ’90s shooter in all its bloody glory, letting you enjoy a series of levels packed with pixelated monsters to slay with all those trusty old weapons, including the infamous (original) BFG.
This is the work of software engineer James Baicoianu and Internet archivist Jason Scott, and you can visit the site to see for yourself. Scroll down the list of available levels (some of which are full multi-level episodes), choose one you like, and click on it.
You will then be able to see more details about the map (click on the image at the bottom left to see it properly) and then click the “Play” button to load it and get started. Press the power button on the laptop (top right) to return to the long list of levels, which is, according to Baicoianu’s post on Bluesky, “endless” (well, very long anyway).
The creator tells us: “Introducing DoomScroll: an endless source of thousands of Doom WADs created by users over the past 32 years, all playable right in your browser. Our goal was to make decades of work from one of the most creative communities in the history of gaming more accessible and visible to everyone.”
Analysis: Cacodemon versus chainsaw
This is an impressive website showcasing the rich history of Doom custom levels, some of which were created by people who later worked at large game studios. If you played Doom in 1993 when it arrived (as I did, a one-on-one deathmatch on two PCs connected by serial cable), you’ll surely appreciate it.
Baicoianu enthuses: “There’s a lot here, from simplistic maps made by kids who were just learning how game development works, to full conversions with completely new music, textures and sprites, created by teams of volunteers that became full-fledged game studios.”
However, keep in mind that it is a considerable waste of time. It’s also worth keeping in mind that some of these levels are, shall we say, a little difficult. You’ll need to get comfortable facing a chainsaw-wielding Cacodemon behind the first door you open in a level, and don’t be surprised if you’re running from a horde of imps and guys with shotguns and suddenly run into a cyberdemon around a corner.
Another caveat here is that some maps don’t seem to work, as PC Gamer points out, and I ran into one of those glitches, but everything else I tried was fine.
One last point to note is that the mouse is quite sensitive, or at least it was for me, so you can adjust it in the game options. Press Escape to access the main menu and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate to the options and adjust the mouse sensitivity there a bit, if necessary.
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